Hearse clamped before funeral

An undertaker about to set off for a funeral was staggered to discover his hearse had been clamped by a private parking company. Keith Nessling, a funeral director with Francis Chappell, had parked the hearse in the private service road behind his premises in Bexleyheath Broadway.

He said: “The rear doors were open and we were in the process of bringing out the coffin to put in the hearse, in preparation for a funeral.” But a clamper working for the parking company ZCS UK had attached a clamp to the wheel. Mr Nessling said the clamper told him: “The vehicle has got no permit.”

“I said to him ‘Are you stupid or what?’ and told him I had removed the permit because we were just about to leave for a funeral.”

The clamper warned Mr Nessling he was about to go, and refused to remove the clamp without permission from his head office. Mr Nessling said: “I rang his head office and was put on hold twice before I finally spoke to someone. When I did get through, the company did apologise and phoned the clamper to tell him to remove the clamp. He didn’t say anything. He just had a silly grin on his face.”

But Mr Nessling said if he had been only a handful of minutes longer in the florist, the clamper would already have driven off, leaving the hearse immobilised and with no way of getting the coffin to the funeral. He added: “I think he was over-zealous.”

A spokesman for ZCS UK said the clamper had only recently joined the company. He added: “There is a very strict parking regime in this road and vehicles have to display a permit at all times. The hearse was not displaying a permit, but it was released immediately, free of charge.”